Should WordPress Link Titles Be Long or Short for SEO?
December 14th, 2009 | Author: Jim Hutchinson
When building your WordPress blog, eventually you will want the search engines to put you closer to the top of their results list for certain keywords. To get up there further, there are some things you can do on your blog.
One of my friends is building multiple sites using WordPress and asked me how long the navigation button titles should be. I thought the answer might help others too, so here is that conversation.
Hi Jim, I’m redoing my www.realestateappraisertips.com and/or dotinfo site with Thesis 1.6. On the Top Nav, I’ve received the suggestion to shorten my buttons to just “About”, “4 Ways to Connect” and “YouTube”. How does Google look at this topic. Am I better off with the longer titles for online search or the shorter “About” and “4 Ways to Connect” and “YouTube”…or does it matter?
I think it is a trade-off between SEO and aesthetics. For SEO purposes, a more descriptive link will boost your SEO, but hurt your aesthetic layout because the buttons or links will be longer. This is especially true if the navigation buttons are on top.
If the page links are in the sidebar, then they can be a bit longer while not forfeiting aesthetics.
The shorter button labels tell your visitors where to go, give the search engine spiders links to follow, but do little for link descriptions. It would be better if the themes would allow for ALT and TITLE tags for the navigation buttons. That way the visual length will not matter as much to the search engines.
Having the TITLE tag there will allow for site owners to let visitors see more details about the page they are going to visit before actually getting there. Having an ALT tag with the same or similar information as the TITLE tag will give search engines more content to index.
Of course, the primary SEO factors are on the pages themselves. In WordPress, the page title will use H2 since the H1 is used for the site title. The hierarchy flows down from there.
Now I am turning to you, my readers. What do you think about this? What trade-offs do you think there are with shorter link titles and SEO?
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Posted in SEO | 
Tags: article writing 
, html heading tags , post slug , website design , WordPress seo
34 Responses to “Should WordPress Link Titles Be Long or Short for SEO?”
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Wow! Thank you so much Jim for tackling this issue for us today!!! I’ve had this question in the back of mind for years now and so glad to have the answer. One thing I found that is so helpful on my site is that I can use the shorter title, “YouTube Channel” and when I hover over it, “Real Estate Appraiser Tips YouTube Channel” shows up. So, it doesn’t appear that I’m sacrificing by using shorter nav button titles. Again, I do appreciate your time on answering our questions. Bill
Thanks Bill. I appreciate the feedback and the opportunity to help answer your questions. I am looking to see where the button title is created, the one that shows up when you hover your mouse over the button. Since I just redesigned the site without buttons on top, there are none for me to test. The text links just have the page title, not the one that is entered into the extended options section for title, description, keywords, distribution, etc. If you know the answer, let us know. Thanks!
Hi, my K-meleon internet browser is displaying your web site strangely just thought you may want to know.
I have never heard of the K-meleon browser so would not have tested for that. Try Firefox or Google Chrome. Thanks for letting us know.
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I usually dont post comments but I recently started using twitter and I am a little lost. Thank you for clearing some stuff for me. Looking forward to your next post.
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Focusing on a niche topic is where you should be focused. Even if it is not profitable at first, keep at it and build your following. There can and should be sub-topics, but all focused on the primary topic of your site. Make a list of all the things that interest you, then arrange them into primary and sub-topics. That will help you create a road map of how to lay out the foundation to build your website. When you need help, be sure to come back here for guidance.
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Thank you. I come from a technical background and have written technical manuals in various industries, so this fits in with my writing style. I am glad it helps you.
Hi, would you know of any similar resources which could help me in my internet marketing? Also, do you offer a subscription service?
In the Pages list to your right, there is a link for Internet Marketing. Check there for references. You can also look at Affiliate Referral Sources for more marketing sources. It is another one of my blogs.
Great post, are there any specic tools you’d recommend?
Thank You For keeping it on point and on topic –
Best Regards
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I have been blogging for about 2 years, but building websites since around 1997. Blogs are a lot easier to build, depending on the focus. I am glad you like it. Keep coming back.
I’m glad to find out that there is still a little great content to find on the internet. I have gotten fed up with google sending me junk.
If you think Google sends a lot of trash links, you should try Yahoo! Keep in mind that the more popular a website is, the more people will be linking to it, writing about it and adapting the content to their own. The best is to find the original content, which you have found here.
Very insightful post. I am going to link to it in my new blog.
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I am glad you like the design. The first version was modified from a publicly available template. I did my own graphics, which took the longest to get just right. (The image is a planetary gear that drives large machinery.) All the code changes were done with NoteTab Pro, a powerful text editor. That design took me 3 days. The current version took a few hours to design and tweak (I forgot to time it) using Artisteer Theme Generator. Using that I only need to change a few things in the text editor to get it the way I (an apparently, you) want.
Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds also… I am placing a link on my site to yours… what “anchor text” would you like me to use?
Thanks! If you are linking to the home page, you can use the anchor text as, “Website Managers – WordPress Tips to Become a Pro Blogger”. Otherwise, you can link to specific articles using their names. I look forward to seeing the links and reviews that go with them.
That’s new.I hadn’t never thought the simple ways Google thinks. The thing is that a spider crawls your page numerous times, it takes a ton of due work on your part in order to get a site to become intriguing to Google. This adds to my understanding of Google.
Clearly your open minded and receptive to other ideas. Many people in the online community are a little more totalitarian. bookmarked
Of course– and I probably shouldn’t even have to say this– people are free to run their own blogs as they see fit. But I get the highest value from blogs where either A) the author’s writing is so outstanding that the lack of comments isn’t material a combination of good writing and good comments leaving my personal Research website if you dont mind Arabic names
The blog was absolutely fantastic! Lots of great information and inspiration, both of which we all need!
As a webmaster , I’m glad to see that someone thought to post this topic.
All too many people out there just don’t grasp the concept of what all is needed in our field, and I think also we’re many times underrated
or taken for granted. Never the less I’m glad to see that you feel the same way I do , thanks so much for this post!
It moves like this, a client seeks for a keyword on Google. You have published an article which targets this word and get submitted it to a internet site which Google likes. The client finds your article on page one, shows it, clicks on your website link, and jaws your website. All going well, you will have about affiliate link click-throughs, and special sales in there! That’s the beauty of affiliate marketing.
Good Article.I find the whole seo thing to be a labourious pain, and PPC is just too costly.With SEO you spend ages doing things to your site, you wait weeks
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I looked for this site on Digg and just submitted the home page. You are welcome to Digg it too. Thanks.